Migrant Women Lift Remittances

Even when times were tough, immigrant Silvia Navas says she never stopped sending money to her mother in Guatemala. "She needs the money to pay her utilities and other expenses," says Ms. Navas, a 46-year-old facilities manager in Maryland.

Ms. Navas and women like her are a growing force in the economies of developing countries, a new study by the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington-based independent think tank, shows. It...